Transhumanism is defined as “the belief or theory that the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations, especially by means of science and technology.” What moral and theological implications does it hold? Consider this thought-provoking article by Jef Anderson on the topic.
Jef Anderson lives in Southern California, where he teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of La Verne. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Counseling at Liberty University to add to his B.S. in Psychology and M.S. in Counseling. Jef has been a public school educator for more than twenty years, and when he’s not involved in teaching, coaching, or counseling, he enjoys spending his time with his wife Dee Dee (an elementary school principal), his two daughters, his son-in-law, and (of course) his grandkids.
This article does not necessarily represent the views of The Areopagus, but is presented here to foster thought and civil discussion.
Leaving the Station:
Removing Man from Humanity
Today
Justin couldn’t help but glower at the Social Worker. It was the first time he’d seen one, and his upper-middle-class life-experience couldn’t frame the need for such a person intruding into his life–especially on THIS day. He’d been very clear: Justin didn’t want the mandatory HIV test[1] given to his two day old daughter, who–in the verified opinion of that hospital’s staff–lay completely healthy in the neonatal unit. He’d done the research on the retrovirus test Zidovudine prophylaxis (AZT)[2], believing the odds of his daughter’s contracting HIV such a statistical impossibility that the risk of that drug’s side effects[3] was unwarranted, and in his opinion, unconstitutional[4]. Justin was incredulous as to how this complete stranger could dictate his own child’s future, and it rocked his late twentieth-century sensibilities.
Since the late 1990’s the state of New York–along with three others–enforce mandatory HIV testing on all newborns[5]; and though most states currently reject this type of medical strong-arming, the precedent is firmly set. Furthermore, this medical coercion isn’t exclusive to testing alone, but also includes actual treatment[6], when within forty-eight hours newborns receive their first shots and medications for purely hypothetical ailments.
However, most adults (including this author), would willingly elect for children to undergo this type of test and treatment, provided there is a reasonable threat of actual contraction. So what’s the issue? What’s at stake? Well, it would seem what’s at stake is the future of humanity as we know it. Accessing decades of research in DNA modification, researchers at University of Pennsylvania are honing “autologous cellular immunotherapy,” which is a new way of individualizing therapeutic vaccines.
“What we’re doing falls under the area of personalized medicine in the extreme sense–using a person’s own white blood cells or tumor cells to develop a personalized vaccine,” says Carl H. June, M.D., a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and director of translational research at the Abramson Cancer Center, creator of these vaccines. “This isn’t a drug in a bottle or a vaccine in a vial, thanks to advances over the past 10 years in cell engineering and gene transfer.[7]”
Again, what’s the big issue? With this “autologous cellular immunotherapy,” probably nothing. It’s quite exciting to think one could get a custom-made inoculation that originates from his own genetic material. And, even if the genesis of a similar therapy originates outside of a man himself, still probably not a problem: after all this author didn’t have polio before he received a small dose of the polio virus to help immunize him from infection. But what if the curative genetic material comes from beyond the lines of humanity? From outside of us, from beyond our species? What if, in order to assure “wellness,” we’re melded with the DNA of other life forms?
There is a line out there–a line that separates treatment from transmutation–upon which we as a culture now medically stand. If any treatment repairs my divinely designed body to its intended state, all the better. However, what are the consequences if we elect to change our divinely created spirit containers[8], potentially removing it from the chance of infection? What if we could actually alter our bodies to prevent the negative consequences of human desire? What are the spiritual ramifications if we could make it genetically impossible, for example, to even contract AIDS?
